PT Defending Anakin and the Tusken

I agree that Lucas does use this scene as a turning point for Anakin's character in AOTC, and also as a progression on his journey to becoming Darth Vader. Prior to this, Anakin comes across as an impetuous youth who might struggle with his temper, which isn't that unusual in an adolescent, but when he slaughters the Tusken Raiders he commits his first act of extreme violence and vengeance. The audience might find it understandable in the sense that we can sympathize with Anakin's loss of his mother and the rage and desire for vengeance that he felt over her abduction and torture, but it becomes a stepping stone for Anakin to commit the further acts of violence and vengeance that you mention: the execution of Dooku (the surrendered enemy), and then the murder of Mace, after which I think you are right that he felt he couldn't turn back, that he had made his decision for better or worse. Each choice in some way makes one easier to commit though we still get a sense of Anakin's wresting with his worst impulses throughout the Prequel Trilogy and can see how the traumas of his life have contributed to his fall, making it a tragic hero's journey of a gradual descent into darkness that to me for the most part succeeds in a way that tugs my heartstrings.

I do feel like Anakin turned to Padme for comfort after the loss of his mother and his slaughter of the Tusken Raiders. In many ways, I feel like he transfers a lot of his love and need for a mother onto Padme throughout the Prequel Trilogy due to the separation from Shmi in PTM and death of Shmi in AOTC. Anakin definitely comes across to me as romantically interested in Padme for her beauty and bravery, but also seeking in her that unconditional love, acceptance, and comfort often associated with the mother figure. There is something sort of Freudian about their relationship in that way, at least to me. Honestly, I see Anakin very much as a character desperate for both a father figure (he finds two competing ones in Obi-Wan and Palpatine after Qui-Gon's death--he latches onto Qui-Gon so quickly in my opinion because before that the only father figure he probably had was Watto) and a mother figure to replace Shmi (whom he finds in Padme). To me, that explains a lot of Anakin's tragic choices and hangups. Psychoanalytic theory greatly influences my interpretation of the Prequel Trilogy in general, but that may be getting off-topic, so I apologize for that.

 

Thank you. I'm glad that the theory is interesting to someone outside my own head and doesn't make me sound crazy

I just always felt like there was a gentleness about Padme especially in the way that she treated Anakin that reminded me of the archetypal mother figure. I think Anakin's subconscious linking of his mother and Padme also contributed to his fear of losing Padme and made him even more desperate to save her after he had his nightmare of her dying in childbirth in ROTS in my opinion. I found when I looked at Anakin's thoughts and actions through that psychoanalytic lens I could interpret ROTS in a deeper way that worked well for me.

I absolutely agree with you that Palpatine manipulated the lack of a father figure in Anakin's life to great effect. Indeed I feel like it is his skillful ability to play the father figure who appears to provide unconditional love (while truly of course he does not do so, but Anakin tragically does not realize that) that allows him to tempt Anakin to the Dark Side in ROTS.

To me taking a psychoanalytic approach helped me appreciate Anakin's need for both a father and mother figure, which in turn allowed me to appreciate TPM even more for the way it really established why and how Anakin became so desperate for these mother and father figures. All these made Anakin seem an even more tragic character to me, someone shaped by early childhood separations, absences, and traumas.

 

You bring up some good and important points. I agree that Anakin doesn't actively go to Padme for comfort rather she is the one who offers it, and that does seem to be the general pattern of their relationship from TPM through to ROTS: she senses that he needs comforting and goes to him to provide it. I do think that Padme, who talks about her desire for a family and children in AOTC, might have at least subconsciously sought Anakin out to provide him with comfort because she likes being in that sort of motherly role and senses that he is someone in need of that motherly figure starting in TPM. I do think Anakin being so quick to confide in her and accept the comfort that she provides from TPM through ROTS suggests that he needs her filling that motherly role even without being consciously aware of it.

I do think that there are different factors of Anakin's relationship with Padme beyond his identification with her as a mother figure. I also think that he feels a childish attraction to her from the moment he met her in Watts's shop, commenting that she looks like an angel. Then he maintains an idealized image of her, a dream of her as you say, throughout the years that they are separated between TPM and AOTC. I don't know if I would necessarily call that love since it is about an idealized image of Padme more than the reality of Padme, whom he doesn't see for ten years, but there is definitely that romantic component to their relationship. Anakin is certainly attracted to Padme in a way that one wouldn't be to one's mother or at least shouldn't be.

I do agree with your interpretation of why Anakin goes to the garage. I absolutely think he goes there to fix things--to try to regain control--to fix machines in a way that he couldn't fix his mother and to regain the control he lost with the Tusken Raiders. I believe he even alludes to that with his remark to Padme about how he had always been good at fixing things. That element of the scene was extremely well and movingly done in my opinion.

 

Good point about there also being practical considerations why Anakin goes to the garage. Sometimes the psychological and symbolic reasons jump out at me first but the practical reasons also deserve attention.

 

As a newcomer to this forum, I first have to say that I love how I can have conversations here about Freud and Star Wars. There aren't many other places where that would be possible, so I'm really enjoying my conversations here

Anakin's abnormal origins of having no father was definitely one of the first things that put my onto a Freudian interpretation of Anakin's character and the Prequels in general since to me it really called attention to Anakin's lack of a father figure and helped explain his seeking of father figures in a variety of characters (Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine). In TPM, we are introduced to Anakin, a boy literally without a father figure, which creates the potential for an extremely magnified need for father figures.

I agree with you that a similar Freudian dynamic seems to be at play in Anakin's relationship with Padme. In TPM, we see how difficult the separation from his mother was but also see Padme in an almost motherly role comforting him on the ship to Coruscant. No wonder Anakin would begin to latch onto her as sort of surrogate mother in those circumstances. In AOTC, we see in Anakin's nightmares that his continued separation from his mother has weighed heavy on Anakin psychologically and then those nightmares are made reality when Shmi dies at the Tusken camp. After this loss of his mother, it is understandable that when Padme offers him comfort, he might subconsciously again associate her with the comfort, love, and acceptance of the mother figure he has just lost with Shmi's death. Then when Anakin gets these nightmares of Padme's suffering and death in ROTS, of course he associates them with similar nightmares of the loss of his mother since he has already subconsciously linked Padme with his mother as this figure of unconditional love, acceptance, and endless comfort.

With Padme herself, I definitely think that she had motherly feelings toward Anakin and TPM and wanted to comfort him in the way a mother might since she knew that he had just been separated from his mother. I don't think at that point she was attracted to Anakin in any sort of romantic way, but I believe that in AOTC, she finds herself attracted to Anakin romantically, but can't fully reconcile those feelings with the motherly ones she had for him in the past nor with the complications any relationship between them would pose for their careers. I think that's a major reason why the attention Anakin pays to her in AOTC makes her uncomfortable initially, but why in the end, she does come around to wanting a romantic relationship with him. She never quite manages to find a way to reconcile the complications of their relationship presents for their careers in either AOTC or ROTS, but she can't resist the attraction she feels for him. Nor can she erase her internal desire to be a mother for him, comforting him whenever he is distressed, and trying to be accepting of even his worst traits and trying to be that source of unconditional love and support in his life. It all ties together for me in this way, even if I do understand that others will have different interpretations of all this.

 

@CLee, I agree that there doesn't seem to be much of a legitimate justice system in place on Tatooine (probably thanks to it being run by the gangster Hutts), which probably encourages vigilante justice such as Anakin meted out to the Tusken Raiders who tortured and killed his mother.

As to the Jedi, I think they tended to interpret their role as being to serve the Republic, so I believe that was why they didn't intervene much on Tatooine, which is described as being outside the Republic in the Prequels. At least that has been my interpretation of how the Prequel Jedi operated.